


And Swallow Up the Rest of Me

by AstroGirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 09:30:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1130989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstroGirl/pseuds/AstroGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Hook achieves his life's goal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Swallow Up the Rest of Me

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate Universe. Contains spoilers up through "The Crocodile." Written for Trope Bingo for the prompt "role reversal."

Finally. _Finally_. The things he's had to do to get here don't bear thinking about, but he _is_ here now. In the Crocodile's den, with the beast himself on his knees and at Hook's mercy. Not that there's going to be any mercy here today.

"Grovel," he says, gripping the dagger tighter in the one hand the creature's left to him. "Beg me for your life."

"Please." The words force themselves out through teeth clenched uselessly against them. "Don't kill me. Please."

Hook leans down, his face so close to his enemy's that he can feel the Dark One's breath on his cheek. It's less foul than it should be. "Say you're sorry." 

"I'm sorry." It almost sounds like it might be the truth. "I _am_ sorry." 

The way Rumplestiltskin's body trembles, the way his eyes seem to focus, just for a moment, not on the man in front of him, but on some inward image... It almost makes Hook feel pity, and that enflames the rage inside him higher than he thinks it's ever been since the day he lost her. Suddenly he doesn't want to savor this moment any more. He just wants this demon to _die_. To die, and never haunt his dreams again.

"No you're not, mate," he says. "But you're going to be."

"That makes two of us," says the Dark One. As the dagger plunges into his chest, he laughs, an awful, bitter, broken sound that goes on and on and on, until the blood bubbling in his throat chokes it off at last.

Hook twists the dagger, shoves it home with all his strength, tells himself that this is the greatest moment of his life, that he is at peace now, that this is triumph. His smile is a feral, toothy grimace that feels as if it will be fixed upon his face from now on, but he feels...

He feels magic, washing over him in waves. It must be magic, it can't possibly be anything else. It feels dark and strong. It makes _him_ feel dark and strong. It also makes him feel sick, and he bends over his enemy's body, trying not to vomit. What is this? Some final trick? Some revenge for his revenge? 

He tells his stomach to quiet itself, and it does. Instantly. Like magic.

"What did you do?" he says, but the man lying there is not the Dark One. Not anymore. He's an ordinary man, a lame, harmless peasant, dead as any ordinary man would be from a knife to the chest.

He pulls the dagger out, wipes the blade on Rumplestiltskin's clothes. "Killian Jones" it says now. The hand that's holding it, he fancies, is already becoming gray and not quite human.

There's an itching in his other arm, and he looks at it just in time to see his hook dropping to the floor. Something is happening. A wrist, a hand. Whole, as if they'd never been gone. As if Milah had never lived or died. "Killian Jones," the dagger says. Not Hook.

He stands slowly, shakily. His body feels good. Better than it ever has, maybe. The rest of him...

"What now?" he says, staring at his hands, at the dagger, at the useless body on the floor. He is full of magic, and he is empty. Utterly empty.

He has, he realizes, a long, long time ahead of him.


End file.
